


mutual attraction

by jhoom



Category: Supernatural
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, angsty fluff, high school!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 14:35:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8106082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jhoom/pseuds/jhoom
Summary: Dean hears something he wasn’t meant to and okay, so maybe he overreacts, but why does everyone have to get on his case about it?





	

**Author's Note:**

> apparently i'm in a fluff writing mood lately. who knew??
> 
> come visit me on [tumblr](http://jhoomwrites.tumblr.com) and enjoy ;)

“It would never work out between me and Dean,” Cas says emphatically.  His tone is rigid and uncaring, a complete statement of fact.  A fact that doesn’t seem to trouble him at all.

“But you two would be so cute together!” Anna argues, a little bit of a whine working its way in.  He can picture her bouncing on her feet like she always does when she’s trying to get what she wants.

“Anna.”  There’s a tinge of condescension as he explains very carefully to his sister, “With things like this, there needs to be mutual attraction.  And that’s simply not the case with me and Dean.”

Dean, who had been frozen with his hand reaching to push open Cas’ bedroom door, finally regains control of his body.  He backs away from the door.  His blood thundering loudly in his ears and he can barely hear Anna’s soft voice over it.  Feeling numb, he turns on his heel and takes the steps two at a time in a rush to _get out get out_.

Because _fuck_ did that hurt.  He’s had a crush on his best friend since before he even knew what it meant to have a crush on someone.  And yeah, he’d mostly ignored it because it hadn’t seemed like a good idea to mix friendship with romance.  There was of course that little corner of Dean’s heart that _hoped_ that Cas would someday feel the same way.  Maybe, if he were lucky.

That piece of him died and crumpled into dust as he stomped towards the front door.  

Cas isn’t attracted to him.  Cas is _never_ going to be attracted to him.  

Hand on the doorknob, he’s nearly free of the house when he hears Cas call to him from the top of the stairs.

“Dean?”

He toys with the idea of storming out anyway, but a conversation might give him the outlet he needs for the energy radiating off him right now.  So he retreats from the hurt he feels and shields himself in anger.  When he turns around to confront Cas, the quiet fury must show on his face if the other boy’s reaction is anything to go by.

Cas rushes down the stairs, face twisted in concern.  “Dean, I’m… I’m sorry-”

“Don’t worry about it.  It’s not like you said anything that wasn’t true.”

“I… I…”  Cas’ cheeks flush bright red and he avoids Dean’s eyes.  “I didn’t want you to find out like this…”

“Yeah, well, can’t always get what we want,” he mutters bitterly.  “Look Cas, I’m gonna have to take a rain check on studying.”

“Of course, Dean.  I understand.”  

And something about how _meek_ Cas is acting, how he gives in to Dean so readily.  The _pity_ that he must be feeling for Dean makes his blood boil because no one _no one_ pities Dean Winchester.  Not for this, not for anything.  

“You know what else, Cas?  Let’s just go ahead and cancel the study session altogether.  And maybe you should find someone else to go to the movies with this weekend.  And maybe someone else to drive you to school in the mornings.”  Gaining speed as his anger topples out of control, he adds for good measure, “And maybe you should just find yourself a new best friend while you’re at it.”

Cas face contorts in something akin to devastation.  Dean doesn’t stay long enough to think about it, instead leaving and slamming the door shut behind him.  

\- - - -

The weeks blend together as Dean spends them alone.  He’s not actually alone, still surrounded by friend and family, but more often than not he feels a profound loneliness.  As he lies on his bed staring up at the ceiling, it’s not exactly a mystery why.

Dean’s avoided Cas since the _incident_.  He’s well aware that he’s the asshole in this situation.  At some point Cas figured out Dean was harboring a crush for him and, being the generally awesome best friend he is, he didn’t make a thing of it.  Hell, if Dean hadn’t overheard what he did, he’s pretty sure it would’ve never come up.  And if Dean hadn’t basically told him to fuck off, Dean’s got the impression Cas would’ve said it wouldn’t have mattered.  Nothing needs to change, they could still be friends, blah blah blah.

He’s being immature and he knows it.

But at the same time, the idea of being around Cas again with Cas _knowing_ …  With Dean _knowing_ Cas isn’t interested…  It’s a kind of torture he’s not strong enough to endure just yet.  Give it another week or so, when how much he misses his best friend outweighs his broken heart, and he’d cave and beg Cas to let them still be friends.  

Right now, though, all he wants to do is sulk.

His phone buzzes with an incoming call.  He braces himself before checking, not sure if he does or doesn’t want it to be from Cas.  Cas, who’d sent a few tentative apologies the first few days.  When Dean didn’t respond, those messages had stopped pretty quick.  Which is what he wanted.  Even if it made things worse that Cas seemed to have given up on him.

 _Just another way he means more to me than I do to him._   

His shoulders slump in disappointment when he sees it’s Charlie.  Fuck, he’d seen the C and his heart had leapt in excitement, but no.  Still radio silence.  

_No shit, you were a fucking jackass the last time you spoke.  Why would **Cas** want to call you?_

He presses his eyes closed in an attempt to keep those thoughts at bay.  Once he’s composed himself, he answers with a terse, “Hello?”

“Winchester, what did you do to Cas?”

“And there it is.”  He tries to sound exasperated but can’t manage more than a trace of annoyance.  Honestly he’s too damn exhausted.  “Wondered when you’d get on my case about this-”

“About _ignoring_ your best friend?  Yeah, I was definitely going to get on your ass about this.  I thought it was just another ‘boys will be boys’ or whatever thing, but it’s been _a month_ , Dean.  You have flat out pretended Cas doesn’t exist when you are in class together.  What gives?”

His right hand clenches uncomfortably tight around the phone while his left rubs his temples.  He takes in a stuttering breath and lets it out to buy some more time.  “We had a fight.”

“No shit, I’d kinda figured that much out.  What about?”

That’s not a question he’s willing or prepared to answer.  Charlie would understand and knows him too well to confuse it for wounded pride, but since there’s nothing she can do to help he’d rather keep the specifics to himself.  “What, you haven’t talked to Cas?”

“I have.  Doesn’t mean he’ll take to me though.  I swear, guy’s more loyal to you than he is to himself.”

“Yeah, sounds about right,” he admits bitterly.  

When Dean doesn’t elaborate, Charlie huffs angrily over the line.  “Well, if you won’t talk to me that’s fine, but you need to fix this.  Cas is so damn _sad_ and it breaks my heart.  He just mopes around like a kicked puppy and damn if I’m gonna let that stand.  And you haven’t exactly been Mr. Sunshine and Cheerfulness lately, either.  Work.  Your.  Shit.  Out.”  

And before he could agree or protest or even breathe, she hangs up on him.  Left on his own to think about that, he goes back to staring at the ceiling until he falls asleep.

\- - - -

Dean’s a coward.  

He doesn’t do a thing to seek Cas out or fix things, and now on top of everything else he’s avoiding Charlie too.  Because if he doesn’t give her a wide berth, he’s sure it’ll end with her locking him and Cas in a room together.  

A couple days later, he’s stuffing his books into his locker when he sees a flash of red heading his way.  Bracing himself, he closes the locker door only to be faced with a very pissed off looking Anna.  Huh not the redhead he was expecting but possibly worse considering the glare she’s leveling at him.

“You’re a dick.”

Not that he necessarily disagrees, but he’s not willing to let Anna chew him out in front of half the school.  “Yeah, I get that alot.”  He pulls her aside to an empty classroom.  She follows without a fight, more interested in yelling at him than for any potential audience.  Once they’re alone, he asks, “There a point to this or…?”

“Is there a point!?”  She grits her teeth and lowers her voice when she notices the stares they’re getting as people walk by the room.  “You are a fucking _dick_ who’s made my brother cry _every friggin night_ for weeks and doesn’t even have the _decency_ to give a crap about it.”

Dean stands there looking at her dumbly.  He’s looking at him expectantly, like he’s supposed to a.) _understand_ what she’s told him and b.) have some sort of response.  He’s stuck somewhere around _cry every night_.  Licking his lips, he frowns.  “Cas has been crying?”

“Yes!”  But confusion’s starting to edge out her anger as she stares at him.  

“I… I didn’t know that.”

“People tend to cry when their hearts get broken, Dean.”  Most of the bite’s gone but there’s an undercurrent of her fierce need to protect Cas.  

“Heart broken?”  

And Anna, thank god, seems to have a slightly better grasp of the situation than he does.  Tilting her head in a way that’s painfully reminiscent of her brother, she asks him slowly as if he’s a spooked animal she’s trying to soothe, “What exactly did you overhear Castiel say?”

“Uh, that it wouldn’t work out between us and that he’s not attracted to me and why are you looking at me like that?”

With a deep sigh and eyes full of tenderness, she reaches up to put a hand on his shoulder.  “Oh hon, no.  No no no no no.”

_Anna sits on Castiel’s bed and plays with the fringes of the throw pillow she made him for Christmas when she was five.  He’s been helping her with her homework, the whole time warning her that as soon as Dean arrives to study, she’s on her own.  Trying to keep her voice neutral, she asks, “So are you ever going to ask Dean out?”_

_Cas throws his head back and groans.  Which is pretty much his reaction **every time** she brings this up, but it doesn’t stop her from trying.  “Anna, we’ve discussed this.  It would never work out between me and Dean.”_

_She’s heard the excuses before.  Countless times, in fact.  But she figures if she keeps nudging her brother in the right direction, he might finally make a move on his best friend.  “But you two would be so cute together!”_

_“Anna.”  Oh great, his big brother voice.  She catches herself from rolling her eyes as he continues.  “With things like this, there needs to be mutual attraction.  And that’s simply not the case with me and Dean.”_

_She reaches across the bed and places her hand on his.  “You don’t **know** that.  I’m telling you, the way he looks at you sometimes-”_

_He groans and pulls his hand away.  “Dean’s not attracted to me, plain and simple, no matter how much I might wish him to be.  So I won’t jeopardize our friendship merely because I’m interested in something more than platonic with him.”_

_They hear steps thundering on the stairs and both fall silent.  It takes them a moment to realize the person is moving **down** and not up to greet them.  Castiel jumps to his feet to investigate, but not before throwing Anna a worried look.  She chews her lip and waits.  There’s a voice, loud and angry and very much Dean.  The front door slams shut and Anna knows things have gone terribly wrong._

_Guilt twists inside her when she sees her brother reappear at his bedroom door, tears already in his eyes._

_“Oh sweetie.”  And she opens up her arms.  Castiel falls into her embrace just as the first sobs tear through him._

Dean stares at Anna, jaw agape and completely dumbfounded.  As soon as she stops talking, his body takes over and he’s out the door.  

“He’s at practice!” Anna yells after him.  He waves back to her and takes off for the track as fast as he can.  

Everything passes by in a blur until he’s on the asphalt.  He can see the track team doing their stretches, eyeing him as he approaches.  He ignores them in favor of Cas, diligently warming up his calves.  The last ten feet or so he realizes he has no game plan here.  No idea what he can do or say to fix things.

Cas must hear him.  He turns around and nearly trips over his feet.  And that’s when Dean knows exactly what to do.

He walks right up to him, grabs him by the shoulders, and pulls him in for a rough kiss.  Their noses bump together and Cas tries to speak before he gives in and goes with it.  It’s fast and rough and a little dirty, but it feels amazing.  

After a month apart, it feels like coming home.  

They keep at it until the other kids start catcalling and jeering.  Blushing, Dean ignores them and focuses on Cas.  His best friend in whole damn world who he almost lost because of a goddamned misunderstanding and his own stupidity.

“I’m sorry.  I… I didn’t know you felt the same way.”

“What?”  Cas squints at him like he’s an idiot.  “But you heard me and Anna-”

“Yeah, about that…  I apparently heard next to nothing and made some assumptions I shouldn’t have.  I was an asshole and would really appreciate it if you could forgive me and then maybe forget that I handled things so badly.”

“What did you hear then?” Cas asks suspiciously.  

Dean winces and looks at his feet.  He kicks at a few nearby pebbles because there’s no way he can look at Cas while he admits this.  “I thought you were saying it wouldn’t work out because _you_ weren’t attracted to _me_.  Which was believable.  I mean, I’d kinda already assumed it but then you were _saying_ it…”  He shrugs.  “Didn’t occur to me you meant it the other way around, since you’re hot as fuck and a guy’s gotta be blind not to notice that.”

“Dean.”  There’s a warning or maybe a command in the way he says it, so Dean sighs and looks up.  “You are an idiot.”  Dean opens his mouth to protest - halfheartedly, because it _is_ true - when Cas raises his hand to stop him.  “But so am I.  We really could have handled this better.”

He snorts.  “Yeah no shit.”

“So.”  Cas steps back into his space.  “Does that mean we’re dating now?”

A smile spreads across Dean’s face.  He reaches for Cas’ hand and is thrilled when Cas lets him thread their fingers together.  “Yeah, I think it does.”

**Author's Note:**

>  **bonus scene 1:**  
>  me: oh man there's no way i could come up with a bonus scene for this fic  
> my brain: or  
> me: no srsly what else could there possibly be-  
> my brain: *whispers* charlie and anna  
> me: !!!!!!!!!
> 
> **bonus scene 2:  
> **  
>  charlie: ... so you're saying they weren't talking to each other because they were both in love with each other?  
> anna: yep  
> charlie: .... that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard  
> anna: that's not even the best part. ask me how it happened  
> charlie: oh lord, how did it happen  
> anna: dean overheard *part* of a conversation, and then being the drama queen he is stormed off like he knew the whole damn story  
> charlie: omfg whyyyyy  
> 


End file.
